that he died in the fairest flower of his youth; and so sudden was his decease, that there were not wanting persons who ascribed it to poison rather than to any other cause (accidente).[1]
It is said that when Filippo di Ser Brunellesco heard of this event, he remarked, “We have suffered a very great loss in the death of Masaccio”, and that it grieved him exceedingly, the rather as he had himself long laboured to instruct the departed painter in matters touching the rules of perspective and architecture. Masaccio was buried in the abovenamed church of the Carmine in the year 1443, and although no memorial was placed over his sepulchre at the time—he having been but little esteemed while in life[2]—yet there were not wanting those who honoured him after his death by the following epitaphs:[3]—
- ↑ The portrait of Masaccio is in the Florentine collection, where there is likewise a head by his hand. There is also a work in distemper by this master, in the Leuchtenberg Gallery at Munich, and one in the Royal Gallery at Schleisheim. The Royal Gallery of Munich possesses a powerfully-painted picture by Masaccio, representing two old men at prayers, half-lengths, and which bears the name of the master. Drawings by his hand are preserved in the British Museum, and in Christ Church College, at Oxford. See Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, pp. 224 and 246. There are fourteen drawings by Masaccio in the collection of the Florentine Gallery.
- ↑ The commentators ask how this can be made to agree with the favour accorded to him by Cosmo de’ Medici, the esteem of Brunelleschi, etc.? But Vasari obviously means to imply nothing more than that Masaccio had received but little external homage, but few public honours; a circumstance easily reconcileable with the high esteem in which he was held by contemporary artists and others, when the peculiarities of Masaccio’s character are considered.
- ↑ In the first edition of Vasari, the following verses are given as
epitaphs written on Masaccio:—
“Si alcun cercasse il marmo o il nome mio;
La Chiesa e il marmo, una Cappella e il nome.
Morii, che Natura ebbe invidia, come
L’arte del mio pennello uopo e desio.
“If any seek the marble, or my name,
This church shall be the marble—and the name.
Yon oratory holds it. Nature envied
My pencil’s power, as Art required and loved it—
Thence was it that I died.”
in the life of the painter. Masaccio was born in the year 1402; he died in the year 1443; he had consequently attained the forty-first year of his age. — Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
